


Got No Special Powers

by leiascully



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, High School, Teenage Rebellion, Young
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-13
Updated: 2013-06-13
Packaged: 2017-12-14 21:54:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/841803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiascully/pseuds/leiascully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil Coulson doesn't have powers.  All he has is integrity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Got No Special Powers

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: Phil's 17.   
> A/N: For a-hawk-and-his-bow on Tumblr. TItle's from the Ramones song "I'm Not Jesus".  
> Disclaimer: _The Avengers_ and all related characters are property of Marvel Studios and Joss Whedon. No profit is made from this work and no infringement is intended.

Phil Coulson doesn't smoke around the back of that school in the corner the teachers pretend not to notice. If Phil Coulson wants a cigarette, he walks right out the front door and stands across the street. He smokes his fucking cigarette in front of God and everyone, and when he's finished, he stubs it out and pockets the butt.

He's not a total asshole.

Phil figured out a long time ago that high school and college and the working world just meant jumping through somebody else's hoops for the rest of his life. It wasn't a happy revelation. At seventeen, he's ready to make his own goddamn hoops, because it's clear to him that the hoop-makers of the world are assholes with shit for brains. Not a damn thing he's told to do in school is _real_. It's why he never turns in his homework. He likes learning. He just doesn't like the way they try to make him do it. It isn't as if a fucking crossword puzzle is going to prove he knows biology. He does it all - it's mostly bullshit that takes about five minutes that he can knock out while The Ramones shout through his stereo - and he keeps it all neatly in binders, so after he aces every test they give him and the teacher calls him in for questioning, he can toss that binder down on the teacher's desk and watch all those zeros disappear out of the gradebook. He's got straight As and his work is fucking impeccable; he's untouchable and he knows it. 

He's going to jump through this stupid hoop. And then he's going to join the Army, because at least the Army is real and doesn't bullshit you. Boot camp's a hoop. Officer training is a hoop. Phil's going to jump through every one of them. That's why he only smokes once or twice a month - if you're going to buck the system, do it with style and leave yourself a way out. He sure as hell doesn't want to be battling lung cancer in twenty years or wheezing his way through his fitness requirements. 

He doesn't need to be somebody. He doesn't want to be a war hero. But he wants to stand for something, and America seems to be the best thing out there. Not high school America - more like Captain America, back when righteousness was the way you lived your life, not the score you got on the test or the crown you got at prom. He touches the pocket of his leather jacket, where he keeps one of his Cap trading cards - a duplicate, not near-mint like the ones in the plastic sleeves in the box under his bed in his room. 

Integrity. That's what Phil Coulson is about. And that means cutting through the bullshit and owning his actions. That's why he's smoking his monthly cigarette in plain sight. If someone comes to get him for it, he'll go calmly and quietly. But they won't. They never do. He stands on his own, one man against the institution, and they don't have the balls to tell him he's breaking the law. What the fuck is the law for, he thinks, if nobody enforces it. What the hell does it mean if no one stands up for right and wrong, even a dumb inconsequential wrong like this? That's not the world he wants to live in.

He takes one last drag and put out his cigarette on the wall, slipping the butt into the pocket that doesn't hold the Captain America card. Because he's got integrity, and he's going to leave this world a better place than he found it, and he's starting now.


End file.
